Doris the robot is designed for remote inspections of offshore installations.

Yesterday, November 17, Haakon, the Crown Prince of Norway and his entourage visited the Petrobras Research Center, where they saw a demonstration performed under simulated industrial conditions of Doris, a robot prototype funded by Petrobras and Norwegian oil company Statoil.

Developed in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the mobile robotic system for remote inspections of offshore installations permits frequent monitoring and minor interventions within complex, hard-to-reach structures.

Doris is a teleoperated vehicle that moves along tracks. It is capable of capturing and analyzing audio, video, thermal images, vibrations and atmospheric composition. It possesses intelligent diagnosis and alarm processes, and it can be installed on platforms that are already in operation without the need for redesign. As yet there are no plans for field tests with the robot.